Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Yuli Gurriel will play more at all four infield positions this season to give Astros manager A.J. Hinch more options in games and with the roster.

Gurriel has the experience and enthusiasm to do it. At spring training last year, the Astros turned Gurriel into a full-time first baseman, which was a new position for him. He had played second, shortstop and third base in his years playing for the Cuban national team.

“His versatility needs to be utilized a little bit more,” Hinch said. “I was happy with how he looked at third base, how he looked at second.”

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Word has it that Hinch believes he has discovered a long-lost fifth infield position that he plans to have Gurriel play. Secret experiments will begin during Spring training. Right now the apparatus to make the fifth position appear weighs 2.4 tons, but he hopes to reduce the unit to backpack size by the start of the season.

Word has it that Hinch believes he has discovered a long-lost fifth infield position that he plans to have Gurriel play. Secret experiments will begin during Spring training. Right now the apparatus to make the fifth position appear weighs 2.4 tons, but he hopes to reduce the unit to backpack size by the start of the season.

In the super high scoring game of softball 1000, there is a position called 5th base. This sport has never been actually been played, although my friends and I have partially worked out the concepts.

5th base is an optional base which can be strategically occupied to set up the 5 run homer.

I feel safe saying Gurriel will not start a single game at SS for the Astros this year. Maybe he will get some mid-game innings there.

Correa was hurt for a while last year. You can't predict injuries so who knows if it will happen again. If he does miss time they might give Gurriel some time there, just to stick to this plan, but Marwin Gonzalez and Bregman are more logical options.

It's a weird situation, while Gurriel is a very good player, he is both the worst fielder and the worst hitter among his team's starting infield. You aren't giving up defense to gain offense if you switch the 1B to another spot, you are downgrading on both sides. It's hard not to be jealous of the talent the Astros have assembled.

Slightly off-topic but maybe an Astros fan can answer - I've held onto AJ Reed for a couple of years now in a DMB league - am I just kidding myself, or is there a chance he still turns into something useful?

I put the over/under for number of innings Gurriel plays at SS at two. And I'm taking the under. If Correa is injured, Bregman plays SS and Gurriel 3B. There's no scenario where Bregman plays 3rd and Gurriel SS. Marwin would play SS ahead of Gurriel.

Slightly off-topic but maybe an Astros fan can answer - I've held onto AJ Reed for a couple of years now in a DMB league - am I just kidding myself, or is there a chance he still turns into something useful?

Reed's situation is puzzling, and I certainly don't have a definitive answer to your question. Officially, the Astros still talk about him as a legitimate player. With Gurriel being, well, not young, Reed will have every opportunity to claim the 1st base job in the near future. However, he's entering his age 25 season, so he needs to step up soon. My head tells me it's just about a 50/50 shot as to whether he ever becomes the everyday 1st baseman for Houston, but my gut says the odds are against him.

Gurriel still had 3 years left on his contract so I'd guess there's almost no way Reed takes his place but Gurriel could easily move to DH this year or next if Reed forces the issue.

EDIT: Which I guess is to say that, as it stands, Reed is "blocked" by some combo of Gattis, Marwin, Max Stassi, Derek Fisher and Kyle Tucker. On the one hand, that's not murderer's row so there's hope; on the other hand, that he's behind Gattis and Marwin for the DH slot isn't impressive and I'm pretty sure he's no better than #3 behind Tucker and Fisher in terms of guys who will be given a shot at real playing time. So sign me onto #11 although I suspect few teams are clamoring for him. Maybe one of the rebuilders would be interested.